Hi again Pipoz. Yes, I paid the same price. There is a large hardware shop on the LHS of the Nong Khai Road beside the Udon Thani Christian School (I think) a few hundred metres before the ring road. The shop and the block plant are owned by the same people. I suspect the outlet you bought from has the same ownership. I know that you paid quite a bit more for your first lot some time ago (and my previous - read sacked - builder tried to put that on me too), but these are a great product. I used them for the bottom four courses of my retaining wall filled with concrete and 12 mm reo vertically in every second block and horizontaly in the third course.

Last edited by ajarnudon on January 11, 2018, 10:19 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Hi again Pipoz. Yes, I paid the same price. There is a large hardware shop on the LHS of the Nong Khai Road beside the Udon Thani Christian School (I think) a few hundred metres before the ring road. The shop and the block plant are owned by the same people. I suspect the outlet you bought from has the same ownership. I know that you paid quite a bit more for your first lot some time ago (and my previous - read sacked - builder tried to put that on me too), but these are a great product. I used them for the bottom four courses of my retaining wall filled with concrete and 12 mm reo vertically in every second block and horizontaly in the third course.

And hi too as well to STWW and my other commentators. In my design I am guided by the materials and sizes that were specified for the construction of my house on the Gold Coast circa 1991. I hand drew the floor plan and elevations, and after a few builder interviews, my selected builder had them profesionally drawn and specified and approved by the GC City Council.
I know they will be strong enough, particularly when braced laterally at only 2.4 m, and longitudinally at up to 6 m centres but with heavy guage 15 cm C-purlins. The things I am not so sure about (and still seek comments on) are about partially filling with reo concrete, and in particular, anti-corrosion measures. I have never used steel posts with concrete block fill walls before. Plaese comment on these and any other factors (eg. tie wires into the mortar etc.).
Thanks in advance
John

Another whirlwind trip to do some work on the house. On site at 8 am Saturday, back in BKK 2 pm Sunday. Really achieved a lot in that short space of time though. First up we checked a couple of measurements and marked out a lot of levels - this was so that I could revise the plans (Sketchup) in the light of reality when I got back to BKK. We got a couple of things not quite right, but nothing too major. I had drawn the plans with a 12.5 deg roof pitch, but after roofing the garage, this has come down to 11.7 deg. And with single spans of roofing sheets, this won't be a problem. Just need to adjust the plan so that the the main house roof has the exact same pitch.
As my pickup is in BKK, we got the foreman to use his to pickup to get some stuff in Udon (25 kms) - hired a vibrating-plate compactor for the weekend, next call Global House : four HD 15 cm x 6 m C-purlins for some more top plates, primer to paint same, lightweight purlins to go under the garage rafters to support the rolls of foil-sheathed FG insulation we bought, a 2.1 m aluminium stepladder, and some lengths of 25 mm electrical conduit.
Back to the village, and painted the top plates.
After lunch (as pre-arranged) we took on 8 10-wheeler tippers of fill and the neighbour (who was severely hungover) came with his tractor to move it around the site. He did a very good job under the circumstances, manouvering his machine even within the confines of the garage frame.

Meanwhile, the foreman had found a new toy - nobody else got a go on the whacker packer. We used this to compact the areas that would be slab-on-ground - the garage, kitchen and bathroom cum indoor garden. The rest of the house is elevated (five steps), and the outside area will be compacted by rain during the wet season.

Sunday the tractor man came back for a final trim, my three-man team finished the compacting and returned the compactor, picked up some more gear from GH, then back to the village. My missus sent me a photo and video of the aftenoon's work, and the under-rafter purlins had all been welded in place and the insulation installed. The rafters are three inch deep box sections 1.2 m apart, accommodating two parallel rolls of the two inch insulation perfectly, and allowing for a one inch air gap on top to obviate condensation and mould. I intend to use the same method in the house proper, with four inch rafters and 3 inch insulation.

In case you're wondering, the garage is going to be my motel room as well as lock up storage during construction.
The place is even starting to look like a building site now.

Quick update. I've been back the last two weekends. Have welded some small guage gal mesh to birdproof the top of the outer wall of the garage. Over the two weekends, we dug 40 x 40 trenches for the footings for the inside and back walls, poured a 5 cm concrete bed, laid 6 cm blocks x 2 high as (permanent) formwork, made luk buns, fabricated 15 metres of 30 x 30 reo with 6 x 12 mm deformed bars, and finally poured the footings along the back and inside walls of the garage. The inside footing will support a double skin wall, with 14 cm wide concrete blocks on the inside, a 7 cm air gap, and a 9 cm AAC wall on the outer side (being the internal wall of the house proper).

Remembered the conduits for power (X2) and comms, but forgot about the laundry at the back of the garage. No probs - will run pipes under reo in the floor to exit right, under the (elevated) main house sub-floor.

Well, the garage will be virtually complete - which is a huge step. It will give me secure storage for tools, welder, materials etc, and somewhere to sleep on the odd occasion - although at 300 baht a night, the local resort with air con might be attractive in the hotter months.
We have been spoiled with the beautiful weather over the last couple of months, but it has come to an end. Had the first big storm of the season in NE BKK yesterday afternoon.

Don't know if they are available in Thailand but using long radius bends on your encased condiuts make for much easier pull in of cabling. Less chance of damage to the cables as well.
Cheers Jorgo

Also glue male side of joint to stop glue going inside bend and obviously use glue to stop concrete water entering conduit which can leak in via an unglued or poorly glued joint and harden inside making conduit useless.

Hi Bluejets
Thanks for the info, and duly noted. I learned the hard way - the 25 mm conduits that I ran thru the footings for my elec mains were useless because I didn't use large radius bends. But fortunately this wasn't a large problem as I am using cavity walls to a large extent, so just brought them up the wall cavity without any problems.

Hi Fhorst
Welcome to the forum, and welcome to the problem. I had a contractor for the first stage of my project - a very substantial retaining wall. and had to supervise it myself - the workers wanted to take all sorts of shortcuts, and the contractor only spent 15 minutes a day on site. I am now fully supervising the whole project - nothing gets done if I am not on site. I am fortunate in that I have found a local crew (4 guys, 3 ladies) trhat can cover most trades, and we have a good working relationship. But again, I am the construction supervisor - and soon with the oncoming wet season, they will become rice farmers again.

Hi Fhorst
Welcome to the forum, and welcome to the problem. I had a contractor for the first stage of my project - a very substantial retaining wall. and had to supervise it myself - the workers wanted to take all sorts of shortcuts, and the contractor only spent 15 minutes a day on site. I am now fully supervising the whole project - nothing gets done if I am not on site. I am fortunate in that I have found a local crew (4 guys, 3 ladies) trhat can cover most trades, and we have a good working relationship. But again, I am the construction supervisor - and soon with the oncoming wet season, they will become rice farmers again.

Same problem my wife had, contractor over extended and so she became foreman/contractor. She did get to keep his scaffold though as he owed her some materials

Bringing anything up the cavity can have it's problems as well.
Care must be taken to ensure whatever it is , is secured to the inner surface. Any contact with the outer surface ( or closer than about 10mm) can cause water to migrate inside the dwelling with no idea where it is coming from.
Also, with the spate of white ant reports lately, any track from the natural ground through the concrete will be a white ant highway.
Outer surface as well as inner.
Cheers Jorgo

Total concrete and steel construction make it termite-proof and fire-proof. Not a stick of timber in the whole place. At least not yet - looking for a couple of solid 8 x 2 s for the top of my workshop bench.